(1) Process Planning

Products and their components are designed to perform certain specific functions.
Every product has some design specifications which ensure its functionality aspects.
The task of manufacturing is to produce components such that they meet design
specifications. Process planning acts as a bridge between design and manufacturing by
translating design specifications into manufacturing process details. It refers to a set of
instructions that are used to make a component or a part so that the design
specifications are met, therefore it is major determinant of manufacturing cost and
profitability of products. Process planning answers the questions regarding required
information and activities involved in transforming raw materials into a finished product.
The process starts with the selection of raw material and ends with the completion of
part. The development of process plans involves mainly a set of following activities;

Analysis of part requirements

Selection of raw workpiece

Selection of manufacturing operations and their sequences

Selection of machine tools

Selection of tools, tool holding devices, work holding devices and inspection
equipments

Selection of manufacturing conditions i.e. cutting speed, feed and depth of cut.

Determination of manufacturing times

(2) The manual experience-based planning method

The manual experience-based process planning is most widely used. It is mainly based on a
manufacturing engineer's experience and knowledge of production facilities, equipment, their
capabilities, processes, and tooling. The major problem with this approach is that it is time
consuming and developed plans may not be consistent and optimum. The feasibility of
developed process plan is dependant on many factors such as availability of machine tools,
scheduling and machine allocation etc. Computer aided process planning is developed to
overcome this problems to some extent.
(3) Computer Aided Process Planning
As mentioned in article 39.1, the primary purpose of process planning is to translate the
design requirements into manufacturing process details. This suggests a system in
which design information is processed by the process planning system to generate
manufacturing process details. CAPP integrates and optimizes system performance into
the inter-organizational flow. For example, when one changes the design, it must be

able to fall back on CAPP module to generate manufacturing process and cost
estimates for these design changes. Similarly, in case of machine breakdown on the
shop floor, CAPP must generate the alternative actions so that most economical
solution can be adopted in the given situation. A typical CAPP frame-work is shown in
figure 39.1.

Figure 39.1 A Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) frame-work

When comapred with manual experience-based process planning, CAPP offers

following advantages;

Systematic developemnt of accurate and consistent process plans

Reduction of cost and lead time of process planning

Reduced skill requirements of process planners

Increased productivity of process planners

Higher level application progams such as cost and manufacturing lead time
estimation and work standards can be interfaced

Two major methods are used in computer aided process planning; the variant CAPP
method and the generative CAPP method
(3.1) The variant CAPP method
In variant CAPP approach, a process plan for a new part is created by recalling,
identifying and retrieving an existing plan for a similar part and making necessary
modifications for the new part. Sometimes, the process plans are developed for parts
representing a fmily of parts called 'master parts'. The similiarities in design attributes
and manufacturing methods are exploited for the purpose of formation of part families.
A number of methods have been developed for part family formation using coding and
classification schemes of group technology (GT), similiarity-coefficient based algorithms
and mathematical programming models.
The variant process planning approach can be realized as a four step process;
1. Definition of coding scheme
2. Grouping parts into part families
3. Development of a standard process plan
4. Retrieval and modification of standard process plan
A number of variant process planning schemes have been developed and are in use.
One of the most widely used CAPP system is CAM-I developed by McDonnell-Douglas
Automation Company. This system can be used to generate process plan for rotational,
prismatic and sheet-metal parts.
3.2 The generative CAPP method
The next stage of evolution is towards generative CAPP. In the generative CAPP,
process plans are generated by means of decision logic, formulas, technology
algorithms and geometry based data to perform uniquely many processing
decisions for converting part from raw material to finished state. There are two major
components of generative CAPP; a geometry based coding scheme and process
knowledge in form of decision logic data. The geometry based coding scheme defines
all geometric features for process related surfaces together with feature dimensions,
locations, tolerances and the surface finish desired on the features. The level of detail
is much greater in a generative system than a variant system. For example, details
such as rough and finished states of the parts and process capability of machine tools
to transform these parts to the desired states are provided. Process knowledge in form
of in the form of decision logic and data matches the part geometry requirements with
the manufacturing capabilities using knowledge base. It includes selection of
processes, machine tools, jigs or fixtures, tools, inspection equipments and sequencing
operations. Development of manufacturing knowledge base is backbone of generative
CAPP. The tools that are widely used in development of this database are flow-charts,
decision tables, decision trees, iterative algorithms, concept of unit machined surfaces,
pattern recognition techniques and artificial intelligence techniques such as expert
system shells.

(4) Advantages of CAPP and future trends

CAPP has some important advantages over manual process planning which
includes;

Reduced process planning and production lead-times

Faster response to engineering changes in the product

Greater process plan accuracy and consistency

Inclusion of up-to-date information in a central database

Improved cost estimating procedures and fewer calculation errors

More complete and detailed process plans

Improved production scheduling and capacity utilization

Improved ability to introduce new manufacturing technology and rapidly update

process plans to utilize the improved technology

There are number of difficulties in achieving the goal of complete integration

between various functional areas such as design, manufacturing, process
planning and inspection. For example, each functional area has its own standalone relational database and associated database management system. The
software and hardware capabilities among these systems pose difficulties in
full integration. There is a need to develop single database technology to
address these difficulties. Other challenges include automated translation of
design dimensions and tolerances into manufacturing dimensions and
tolerances considering process capabilities and dimensional chains, automatic
recognition of features and making CAPP systems affordable to the small and
medium scale manufacturing companies.